


The Story of Tonight

by eternaleponine



Series: Where There Is A Flame [11]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Deleted Scenes, F/F, First Dates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-10-06 10:25:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10332533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternaleponine/pseuds/eternaleponine
Summary: Deleted scene fromWhere There Is A Flame.Inchapter 130, Clarke and Lexa realize that Anya's date and Raven's date are the same date.Wondering what happened?  Well if you don't know, now you know.





	

"So," Anya said without preamble after Raven's distracted hello. "Am I just supposed to wait around for you to call, or...? Because I really have no use for following any kind of standard gender role pattern here, where you're the guy because you asked me out and I'm the girl waiting by the phone for you to name a time and place."

Silence on the other end, and then soft laughter. "Hello to you too," Raven said. "I would apologize for not calling, but I really have no use for following any kind of standard gender role pattern where the quote-unquote guy has to call the quote-unquote girl first. Also, I've been busy."

"Class?"

"And homework. Which I would love to take a break from."

"Funny you should mention that," Anya said. "Not today... but what are you doing on Friday night?"

"I don't have any plans," Raven said. "Why?"

"Because I just heard about a new exhibit at the Aerospace museum... thought you might be interested. Women in aviation, with a special section about the—"

"Nachthexen!" Raven said. "I heard about that! But it doesn't open until—"

"Next week," Anya finished for her. "Except I might know a person who knows a person, and there's a preview of it Friday. Kind of a grand opening gala type thing, only probably not that grand." 

By which she meant that Lexa had asked her father for a favor, and he'd pulled strings and gotten her on the guest list. Plus one. Because Anya was pretty sure that Lexa had figured out that there was maybe something going on. She didn't ask questions, which Anya appreciated because at this point she wasn't sure she had any answers. 

She just had questions of her own... or one question in particular. "Will you go with me? There will probably be food there, but we can always go out before, or after."

"What time?" Raven asked. "And how fancy?"

"Seven, and semi-formal. No jeans and t-shirts, but... maybe like something you would wear to a job interview? Or a club? Or somewhere in between the two?" She was stumbling over her words all of a sudden, and felt ridiculous for it. Never mind the fact that she wasn't sure she'd ever actually been on a real date, ever. 

"I can do that," Raven said, and Anya could hear the smile in her voice. "Are you picking me up, or am I picking you up?"

"I'll pick you up," Anya said. "If you want."

"Your car is better than mine, so yeah, sure. There's no way we can pass for classy in my car."

"Dinner before?"

"If you want," Raven said. "I mean yes, I'd like that."

"See you at five?"

"Five. Got it. I'll be waiting."

* * *

She pulled up to Raven's place a few minutes early, but Raven was already downstairs waiting, wearing a shirt that glimmered in the sun and revealed her collarbones. Anya swallowed hard and got out of the car so that she could go around to the other side and open the door for her. "You look beautiful," she said. 

"Thanks," Raven said. "So do you."

"Thank you."

She held the door for Raven as she got into the car, and closed it after her, going back around to the driver's seat. "Anywhere in particular you'd like to go for dinner?" she asked. "Or anywhere you want to avoid?"

"I'm kind of in the mood for Chinese food," Raven said. "There's a good place down towards the south end of campus."

"I know it," Anya said. "Sounds good." She put the car into drive and pointed them in the right direction. "I appreciate you not suddenly worrying that it's somehow potentially culturally insensitive to suggest that we go for any kind of Asian cuisine, by the way. Because sometimes being overly aware is just as bad as being oblivious."

"People actually do that?" she asked. "No one ever freaks out around me if they want to go to Chipotle. Not that that's actually Mexican. Or anything like Mexican."

"People actually do that," Anya confirmed. "I'm still deciding if it's more or less annoying than people who so obviously want to ask what my heritage is, but are afraid that it would be rude to do so. Which it is, but I'd rather have you ask outright than try to tiptoe your way around it." She rolled her eyes. "My father was American, of Scottish descent, and my mother was Tibetan and Nepali. In case you were wondering."

"I was," Raven admitted. "But I figured you would tell me if or when you felt like it." 

"Well now you know," Anya said, glancing over at her and smiling. "I guess it's human nature to be curious, and of course we're all socially conditioned to want to categorize people, put them into boxes. But I've never been good at fitting into boxes, and that drives people crazy. I can't tell you the number of times I've been asked, 'What are you?' I know what they're asking, obviously, but I never give them the satisfaction of giving them a straight answer. It's always human, or a grad student, or a history major, or whatever true but not what they're asking pops into my head. And then they switch it up to 'No, where are you _from_?' Which is actually harder to answer, because I'm not _from_ anywhere in particular. I've lived all over." 

Raven nodded, maybe not exactly like she understood the specifics of Anya's situation, but like she'd had enough interactions with similarly rude people that she could empathize. 

"Of course the winner of the best comeback to someone rudely demanding to know the details of one's racial makeup goes to Costia. A bunch of us were in the dining hall, and some guy just comes right up to our table and looks at her and says, 'So what are you, half and half?' And she looked right back at him, smiled, and said, 'Yes, but my girlfriend is heavy whipping cream, so I suggest you don't piss her off.' And Lexa – who didn't even appear to have been paying attention – just stood up really slowly, and this kid took one look at her and just _ran_. I don't think any of us stopped laughing for a good five minutes."

Raven laughed. "That's good. If someone is going to be an asshole... that's a good way to handle it."

"The funniest thing about it is that I don't think Lexa actually stood up to intimidate him. I honestly don't think she was paying any attention, and she just stood up to go get something, and the timing of it just happened to be perfect."

"She's not even that intimidating," Raven said. "Or... I guess I should say that she's not that big."

"'Though she be but little, she is fierce,'" Anya quoted. "She wouldn't have done anything to him. Not unless he actually made it physical. But if he had..." Anya shook her head. "I guess we should be glad he didn't. Although she was calmer then. More in control."

Raven's smile faded. "What do you mean?"

Anya realized she probably should have been more careful, but it was too late to take it back now. "I'm just thinking of New Years, and the guy that attacked Octavia. She... I had to pull her off of him, when we caught him. She lost it. But she wasn't really herself then."

Raven seemed to consider this, weighing it, then nodded. "Pain can turn you into someone that you're not," she said. "I know that one well."

"She's so much better," Anya said. 

"Since Clarke?"

"Since Clarke," Anya agreed. "Here we are."

They went in to the restaurant, and luckily it hadn't gotten too busy yet. They were seated right away, and spent a little while looking over the menu, deciding on what to order that wouldn't leave them with leftovers that they had no way to keep cool while they were at the museum event. Then conversation turned to Raven's classes and the projects she was working on, and Anya's internship at one of the other area museums, and the prep work she was already doing for the classes she was TAing in the fall, and the looming monstrosity of her thesis, which she hadn't even picked a topic for yet.

It was easy, the conversation, and they didn't run out of things to say, so the only lulls were while they had their mouths full. They decided to take a chance that the food would survive being in the car for a few hours, and had them pack up the leftovers to take home, with Raven joking that they might have to fight over them.

The trip to the museum wasn't very long, and when they arrived them found themselves part of a group of people who pretty obviously came from two very different groups: those who were there to see the exhibit, and those who were there to be seen. Anya held her breath when she handed over the passes, worried that there was some kind of list for the passes and her name wouldn't be on it because they'd been given to Lexa, but the woman just took them and smiled and waved them through.

Once inside, Anya spent just as much time watching Raven as she did looking at the exhibits, because the look of absolute delight and wonder on her face was better to her than any picture or plaque. Before long, they'd gathered a small group of people around them because Raven knew so much that they mistook her for a docent. It took a little while to shake them, and Raven flashed her a sheepish smile. "Sorry. I get a little bit excited."

"I admire enthusiasm," Anya said. "I would always rather be with someone who is passionate about things than someone who is apathetic. Even if it's not something that I am interested in, or that I know a lot about... it's contagious."

Raven's forehead furrowed. "Wait. You're not—"

Anya held up a hand. "Not this," she said. "This I'm interested in. But haven't you ever known someone who was really into something, and you were kind of meh about it, but just listening to them talk about it somehow made it more interesting?"

"Sometimes," Raven said. "Not always."

"Well no, not always. My point is, don't ever apologize for caring about something."

"Okay," Raven said. And then she gently, but also kind of pointedly, took Anya's hand.

They stayed until the end of the little soiree, long after the people who had just come to be seen had lost interest and headed off to fancy dinners elsewhere. They headed back to Anya's car, hand in hand again, and the evening was warm but not too warm, and although the city lights blotted out most of the stars, the moon was bright. "Do I need to get you home?" Anya asked.

"Eventually," Raven said. "But not yet."

So they walked along the river, not saying much. Anya didn't know what Raven was thinking about, and she didn't ask. She was lost in her own thoughts, which mostly revolved around the fact that the night had gone well, better even than she'd expected, and that she didn't really want it to end. It would have to eventually, obviously, unless... 

But that was pushing things too far, too fast, and in a direction that was very likely too confusing at the moment. It was a conversation that they would have to have eventually, not it wasn't really the best topic for a first date. Unless maybe they didn't have it because this would also be their last date, if Raven came to her senses and decided that things would almost certainly be too complicated.

She didn't realize that she'd been slowing down until she felt the tug of Raven's grip. She stutter-stepped to catch up, but now Raven stopped, drawing her off the side of the path. "What's wrong?" she asked. "I mean, is something wrong?"

"No," Anya said. "I..." She sighed. "I don't know." She forced a smile. "I had a good time tonight."

Raven's expression immediately closed off. "But."

"No," Anya said, then swallowed, reaching out to touch Raven's cheek, just tracing her thumb lightly along her jaw, seeing the tension there. "Raven... there's no but."

"There is, though," Raven said. "Something is bothering you."

"Yes," Anya admitted. "And I'll tell you all about it if you want me to, but there's something I need to do first. If you'll let me." She felt Raven tense again, and maybe she would have been better off just doing it, just going all rom-com or whatever and taking what she wanted, but she couldn't. That wasn't her. So she asked. "Can I kiss you?"

"Can...?" Raven blinked, and her eyes were deep, dark pools, except there was light in the depths, and they were too close now for Anya to see her entire face but she could feel the way her jaw twitched, feel the way she fought between a scowl and a grin. "I wish like hell you would."

So she did. And if the entire evening, every smile and laugh and excited rant could be distilled into a concentrated form, that was what this kiss felt like. It didn't last long, but it didn't need to for Anya to be sure that she didn't want this first kiss to be the last. 

Nor would it be, she realized, as Raven pulled her in to kiss her again barely a second after their lips parted, and then they had to stop because they were both grinning and laughing, and Anya put her arms around Raven's shoulders and rested their foreheads together. "Well," she said. "Can I take that as a yes to a second date?"

"I'll have to think about it," Raven teased. Her forehead furrowed for a second, then she smiled again. "Okay, I've thought about it. Yes."

"Good," Anya said. 

"Good," Raven agreed. "Should we keep walking?"

"Probably," Anya said. "I think people might be starting to stare."

"And you care?" Raven asked.

"Not even a little."

"Didn't think so," Raven said.


End file.
